A glimpse

As I'm sitting here on a Wednesday night, trying to concentrate on the course I'm working on, I'm distracted and unfocused... thought I'd share a glimpse of the random thoughts running amok in my head, hopefully inspire, or at least entertain, a couple of people - then be finally able to dig into my reading. Here goes;

• I've talked to so many people (usually the female ones!) who respond to God's near-ness (the spirit of God) with tears; often that's how they recognize Him. As I sit here, I am misty-eyed while listening to my daughter sing herself to sleep. How I love her voice, and I am so certain that her ability to sing is one of the gifts given to her by God's Spirit... I think that's why it makes me cry so often!
• Something has been bugging me lately; it started when we were on a little road trip to Edmonton this past weekend and I'm still annoyed. We brought along The Magician's Nephew, book one in the Narnia Series. I also packed a book I bought ages ago, a chapter by chapter review of all the Narnia books highlighting biblical insights and providing additonal clarity to the text. I read the first few chapters and was mightily disappointed. (maybe thats an understatement) It seemed to me that the 'review' book completely missed the grandness, the beauty, the depth of Lewis' intent and his incredible story telling ability. In the chapter where Uncle Andrew meets Jadis, Empress of Charn, the reviewer focuses on Uncle Andrews swigs of brandy rather than the fact that Evil has just entered the scene and will continue to plague every character and plot for the rest of story. While I don't know that I could adequately capture Lewis true intent, I'm sure that this reviewer completely missed it. This brand of shallow has irked me for as long as I can remember! And while I never knew Mr. Lewis personally, I rather fancy the idea that he spent good amounts of time sitting in some 'upscale gentleman's club', discussing (arguing?) theological points and...drinking brandy!
• Bren posted about the soon-to-be infamous tattoos, but he neglected to mention the Meaning!! This is classic Bren/Kelly dynamic; he's all about the humor, I'm all about the underlying story!! Anyway, to share a bit of the background, we've talked about doing this for over 10 years. We had a different design in the beginning, but in recent years, the design centered around a scripture passage that is particularly important to me - John 15. Jesus is the vine, we are mere branches, and as long as we ABIDE in him, we will be fruit-bearers. The meaning of life now forever stamped on our skin!
• Advent begins on Dec. 2, which means that Christmas is around the corner. I'm praying about celebrating advent and Christmas more simply this year. I do this each year, but hopefully this will be the year I grasp it. Here's one practical step towards embracing holiday simplicity... I'm wrestling with this one!.. there will be no lights on our house this year. We have unfinished items on the to do list from moving in, and we're going to focus on other Christmas-y things, and we don't want the holiday season to be one of stress and neverending things to accomplish... so we decided no Christmas lights on our house. Even though its our first year in a new town? Yup.

Its getting late, too late to work on the stuff I'm supposed to be doing... at least I've cleared the air and made some room in my head!

Thanks for stopping by....